Contrary to the belief of many, marketing is about more than awareness. A lot more, if truth be told. While awareness is a big part of it, it’s only one piece of the puzzle. Here’s a high-level breakdown for you.

Awareness

Whatever it takes to get someone (preferably from your target audience) to know that you exist. The options are virtually limitless here. Traditional advertisements, public relations and social media are some of the more common avenues out there.

Many people erroneously assume this is the only purpose of marketing…those people would be incorrect.

Confidence

In the highly competitive world of American capitalism, simply existing will do little for your bottom line. There is virtually no situation where you’re not being stacked up against a competitor. Marketing that utilizes statistics, studies and testimonials, help your potential customers come to the table with an idea of who you are and what you’re about. Perhaps your products have a lifetime warranty or have been consistently rated #1 by a well-known 3rd party. Perhaps your service has the highest market share in the industry and the lowest customer churn. Marketing can get this information out there to build trust between you and your potential customers.

Action

Getting potential customers to take action is tough. Very tough. The allure of your product or service has to outweigh the status quo – whether that be an incumbent product/ service or the pain that comes along with doing nothing. This tends to be where you see incentivization – BOGOs, introductory rates, discounts, waived onboarding fees, etc. While incentivization certainly doesn’t guarantee action, all you have to do is talk to a car salesmen to prove that it works wonders for creating leads.

The real trick here is figuring out which one of these puzzle pieces you need the most help with. Then, you need to put your marketing focus there, analyze the results, and do it all over again.

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